Taisha

   'Grand Shrine'. One of the shrine-titles (shago). In 'Japanese' reading O-yashiro. From 1871-2 taisha referred to a sub-category of the 209 kansha (governmental) shrines. By 1945 there were 65 shrines thus classified as 'taisha' type, though the only shrine which actually had Taisha as part of its name was the Izumo Taisha or Izumo O-yashiro. Since the war the Jinja Honcho has allowed a dozen other major shrines within its jurisdiction to take the name -Taisha, including the Osaka-Sumiyoshi-Taisha, Kasuga-Taisha, Hie-Taisha (on Mt.Hiei) and Kumano-Taisha. In addition there is the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha, which is not affiliated to Jinja Honcho.